(Bloomberg) – An electrified rail link from
Ethiopia’s capital along its main trade route to neighboring
Djibouti will be completed by October 2015, Prime Minister
Hailemariam Desalegn said.

The Railways Corp. project, funded with a $1.6 billion
advance from the Export-Import Bank of China and by Ethiopia’s
government, is half-complete, he said yesterday in the capital,
Addis Ababa.

“Priority has been given to it,” Hailemariam said in
response to questions from members of parliament. “Next October
the line will be finished.”

The 656-kilometer (408-mile) railway is part of a five-year
growth plan for Ethiopia begun in mid-2010 that seeks to spend
569.2 billion birr ($28.4 billion) of public and private funding
on infrastructure and industry. The new route to Djibouti may
reduce travel times by half, according to the government.
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